Trace Idaho’s budget deficit to the failed ITD headquarters deal | Opinion
Moyle’s Folly
Oh, my…all the hand wringing over a predictable $56 million Idaho budget deficit!? Maybe it’s not all about private school tax credits for the rich. Could it be rooted in a derelict building on State Street contaminated with asbestos and bad decisions?
The old Idaho Department of Transportation building on State Street was condemned in 2022 and staff was relocated. The state negotiated its sale for $52 million to developers to demolish the problem-ridden building and replace it with homes and commercial space. House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, and the Legislature killed the deal in 2024.
The $32 million estimate for renovating the building has ballooned to $64 million. At the glacial pace the state is moving, it could double again.
Moyle will likely cut public school funding or health care to bury this. Idaho’s DOGE should probe “Moyle’s Folly” and expose the bad judgment contributing to our budget deficits.
Gary Hanes, Boise
Ford Idaho Center
Nampa City Council voted to convey the Ford Idaho Center to the College of Western Idaho.
The Idaho Center hosts an estimated 150-plus events, but council declared the center “underutilized,” beginning a flawed process to determine whether to retain, sell or convey the center.
Council never issued a request for proposal to see if Legends Hospitality and Live Nation might offer better management deals.
Manager Oak View Group (OVG) offered to invest $8 million in the center’s amphitheater and collect $1 per ticket to fund capital expenditures for the arena and horse park. Does the public know that?
The current Conveyance and Acquisition Agreement says CWI can revert title back to the city if “CWI abandons the Real Property” and bears no penalties if the center falters. Nampa essentially assumes 100% risk.
According to the Jacob Assessment, the center’s buildings’ replacement value is $147.6 million, excluding the center’s 110 acres. CWI gets the Ford Idaho Center. Nampa gets nothing.
Council never provided residents with three options’ impact on city finances.
There is no rush. OVG’s contract does not run out until September 2027. In 2024, the center had $1.77 million in profit margin. The Idaho Center Fund is projected at $4.88 million by fiscal year 2026.
Council should remember Nampa citizens own the Ford Idaho Center.
Victor Miller, Meridian
Health coverage
Idaho families deserve real answers on health coverage.
I recently reached out to all four of Idaho’s members of Congress: Senators Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, and Representatives Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher. I asked them to protect affordable health coverage for Idaho families by renewing the enhanced premium tax credits before they expire on December 31, 2025.
These credits, expanded during COVID, have helped thousands of Idahoans keep private insurance through the marketplace. According to Your Health Idaho, about 86% of Idaho enrollees rely on these credits. If Congress lets them end, costs will skyrocket. A family of four could pay $6,000 more a year. A couple earning $82,000 could see premiums jump from $7,000 to $22,000. Up to 35,000 Idahoans could lose coverage altogether by 2034. As if being squeezed by inflation isn’t enough, welcome to outrageous premiums.
Not one of them gave a real response, only automated acknowledgments. That’s not good enough. Idaho families deserve to be heard and represented, not ignored.
Health care shouldn’t become unaffordable because Congress failed to act. I urge Risch, Crapo, Simpson and Fulcher to work together and make these tax credits permanent. Idaho families need stability, not skyrocketing premiums.
Dawn Pierce, Boise
Shutdown
I appeal to our U.S. senators’ and congressmen’s higher, nonpartisan selves to participate in finding a just end to the shutdown stalemate they’ve helped create due primarily to their power-based actions of control.
They seem to want the shutdown in order to continue bashing the “other” rather than actually doing anything to solve our politically based problems. The issue Democrats have raised regarding health care insurance coverages and costs is real and can be fixed. It deserves and needs attention.
Via the public statements they have expressed, I believe our Idaho delegation play right along with the autocrats all because they believe they are achieving what they want, without a true sense of what they’re doing to US citizens as well as our democracy.
Failing to even listen to those of us concerned about the details of the recent tax cut legislation confirms this view.
Millions of us, daughters, sons, parents, friends, co-workers and fellow citizens will lose our health care insurance coverage, and, therefore health care, due to these decisions. I ask that our senators and congressmen please begin engaging with their leadership and Democratic colleagues on this issue as they look toward ending the government shutdown.
William Kaage, Boise
Trump
How are you liking life in Trump’s dictatorship? He talks about invoking military rule to protect American freedoms. But wait?! Trump and his GOP enablers have done nothing but take away our freedoms in the past nine months. They want all the power and money, period! They want to control what we read, what we learn, what we hear, what we say, and even what we think and believe. Most of what Donald Trump has done is illegal, unconstitutional, unethical, unhinged, based on lies and/or downright scary. Meanwhile, he has done nothing he promised to do for the American people because we are the least of his concerns. He has done dozens of things that are impeachable offenses, and yet our spineless GOP-led Congress just lets him do it because ... why? They are afraid he will be mean to them! They are afraid he will “primary” them. So what? Do they really want to spend the rest of their lives in Congress just so they can leave a legacy of authoritarianism? We’re paying them, and we’re not getting our money’s worth! We must elect people who will stand up for our rights and our democracy and tell the truth.
Pat Entwistle, Boise